Mobile commerce, (aka “MCOMMERCE”), e.g., the use of mobile communication devices for commercial and financial transactions, came into existence in the 1990's. The general view at the time was that mobile payment technologies would develop, mature and become widely available. However, in recent years it has been found that mobile commerce has not been adopted on a large enough scale to make it viable, and it is now accepted that it is necessary for mobile commerce to first become easier to use, cheaper and to attain sufficient economies of scale, before it will become more popular to use for both users and providers.
One limitation identified in the implementation of mobile commerce is that a person has to own a mobile communication device and has to have airtime available to conduct financial transactions. There accordingly exists a potential market of people who have up to now not been interested in owning mobile communication devices. A typical reason for not owning a mobile communication device is that a person may want to avoid the potential expenditure associated with owning and using a mobile communication device.